All 126 Posts in the Category: Sports

Adam Donlin, the PGA pro at Black Bear, said that in his 12-year career working at courses, which has included supervising hundreds of golf outings and tournaments, he had never seen a 16 on any hole of any scorecard.

“I’m not sure I’ve ever seen more than a 12,” Donlin said. “I mean, a 16? Kevin Na is immortal for that.”

Most impressively, he finished the round with an 80, going 3 under on the back 9.

There is a group of people called the Tarahumara living in Mexico who are well known for their long distance running.

The statement that, “The Tarahumara may be the finest natural distance runners in the world”, made by University of Arizona archeologist Michael Jenk inson, offers some insight into just how good the indians are at running. The Tarahumara routinely run distances only covered by only the most advanced ultramarathon runners today. … While on foot, the Tarahumara do not stroll from one place to their destination, running is used to perform everyday tasks. It is not uncommon for a Tarahumara to travel between fifty and eighty miles everyday at a “race” like pace.

Tarahumara running is based on endurance not speed. This fact is exemplified by their hunting practices. In order to catch such wild animals as deer, wild turkeys, and rabbits, the Tarahumara simply chase after the animal until the animal drops from exhaustion. Their hunting practices are widely known in Mexico and ranchers have been known to hire the indians to chase down wild horses. It is also said that a Tarahumara once ran six hundred miles in five days to deliver a very important message.

Greger Hutu is a master of iRacing – a physically realistic driving simulator with physically accurate cars on physically accurate tracks. How would Greger perform then, if he was placed into a real race car and sent around a track which he has been around virtually hundreds of times before… but never for real? Top Gear Magazine reports:

On a normal Thursday, Greger Huttu sits in the blue glow of a computer screen, in his bedroom in the teeny town of Vaasa on the west coast of Finland. In the afternoons, he joins his fisherman father to land a catch of perch netted from Arctic waters. But not today. Instead, he’s wedged into the cockpit of a single-seater race car, in the boiling heat of Road Atlanta raceway, Georgia. He’s never driven anything like this before – his regular drive is an old Ford Sierra – yet an empty track awaits him, a full race team is at his service and he has full permission to drive as fast as he pleases.

The first match of the Ashes is in swing, so I was idly browsing through some cricket stats. Everyone knows that Don Bradman’s 99.94 test batting average was multiple standard deviations away from the next highest (less than 61). But lesser known is that Michael Bevan’s ODI average stands apart from the rest of the crowd as well – not as far away as Bradman, but there’s still an obvious gap:

Bevan was a terrific ODI batsman – he was normally a mid-order batsman, and helped to prevent the tail from folding too quickly after the top-order batsman were long gone. He had a really good strike rate as well. This reminded me of an absolute classic, nailbiter of a match I watched when I was young – back in 1996. Australia was playing the Windies at the SCG. The Windies made 173 in an innings shortened by rain. When Australia went into bat, they were immediately in trouble, collapsing to 6 for 38. On came Bevan, and two and a half hours later, Australia was 9 wickets down, 1 ball to play, with a 4 needed to win the match, and Bevan on strike.

There is a tradition each year at the U.S. Masters golf tournament. During the practice rounds at the 16th hole, the golfers will hit a ball over the lake that guards the entire approach to the green, some 170 yards away. They may then play a second ball by skipping it across the lake, and hopefully onto the green. This has turned out to be somewhat of a spectacle for crowds.

Floyd went first, taking out a long iron to hit a low stinger. It skimmed the lake once, bounced into the rough and got onto the putting surface to a roar from the crowd. Next up was Campbell, who skipped it a few times but didn’t get enough oomph behind it. The ball ended up in the lake. Last was Wetterich, who failed to even touch the lake, hitting a screamer straight into the green and bouncing it over the back. Wetterich then received a smattering of boos from the playful crowd.

In the 2009 Masters tourney, Vijay Singh’s skip shot memorably bounced across the lake and then…

North Korean nationals generally aren’t allowed to leave their country, and even if they could, they probably couldn’t afford the flight to South Africa. So, who cheered them on in their very respectable 2-1 loss to Brazil?

The largest contingent of North Korea fans may end up being Chinese. North Korea, allocated a block of seats for each World Cup match, has offered its tickets to sporting officials and tour agencies in neighboring China, which does not have a team at soccer’s biggest event.

The North Korean players might just have won a few more supporters because of their first game efforts.

As the World Cup draws nearer, ESPN has announced its television coverage of it. Happily, many of its games will be broadcast online through ESPN 360, which means it will be possible for people to watch the games at work. All of the Australian games except one are on the weekend. We have 3 Aussies in our company, so hopefully no one will mind if we tune out for a bit during the Serbia match… it overlaps with lunch, anyway. :)

I caught the IPL 2010 finals, which they streamed live this year on YouTube. I haven’t seen much cricket while I’ve been in the States, but apart from a reasonably entertaining match, I noticed a couple new technological innovations. The first is when the commentators started talking to Rudi Koertzen mid-over. Koertzen was the square leg umpire at the time. I don’t think any other sport has this, but it’s pretty cool.

The other cool thing is the introduction of Spidercam. Spidercam is basically a gyroscopically stabilised video camera which is strung up by four cables. The cables are attached to four corners of the field on very high pylons. By tightening or loosening each cable, the camera can travel anywhere on the field in three dimensions and shoot from any angle. There are some great shots of a close up of a batsman’s face, follwed by a slow pan out in a wide spiral until we see the entire field from the top. Pretty amazing technology, and makes for some awesome shots.

Garry Kasparov wrote an article about the impact that computers have had on the world of chess. A lengthy but very interesting article:

Even more notable was how the advanced chess experiment continued. In 2005, the online chess-playing site Playchess.com hosted what it called a “freestyle” chess tournament in which anyone could compete in teams with other players or computers. Normally, “anti-cheating” algorithms are employed by online sites to prevent, or at least discourage, players from cheating with computer assistance. (I wonder if these detection algorithms, which employ diagnostic analysis of moves and calculate probabilities, are any less “intelligent” than the playing programs they detect.)

Lured by the substantial prize money, several groups of strong grandmasters working with several computers at the same time entered the competition. At first, the results seemed predictable. The teams of human plus machine dominated even the strongest computers. The chess machine Hydra, which is a chess-specific supercomputer like Deep Blue, was no match for a strong human player using a relatively weak laptop. Human strategic guidance combined with the tactical acuity of a computer was overwhelming.

The surprise came at the conclusion of the event. The winner was revealed to be not a grandmaster with a state-of-the-art PC but a pair of amateur American chess players using three computers at the same time.

Seated in a cushioned folding chair mere feet from the basketball court, POTUS studiously remained dispassionate and impartial even as fans of the Georgetown University team all around him went absolutely berserk. Just to his left was a line of shirtless students smeared with gray and blue body paint, some wearing frenzied blue wigs and screaming like they were possessed. In response to a call that was apparently unfavorable to the Georgetown University team, one of the shirtless fans tried starting a cheer unfit for a family newspaper. But just as it started to get off the ground, a second shirtless student — no doubt a nerd — scolded, “Dude, the President of the United States is right there!” Which effectively killed that cheer.

Germany, Ghana, and Serbia. There are no easy names among those. Australia has already been been pegged as the underdog in its World Cup group, and the odds at the bookies agree (at the moment $1.14 for Germany to progress to round 2, Serbia $2.15, Ghana $2.25, Australia $2.85). Some even think that we will emerge with zero points.

But the scene in 2006 was familiar, when we confronted Brazil, Croatia and Japan. Our opening game was with Japan. I remember the elation, standing in the chilly early morning air with 5,000 screaming fans in Circular Quay, for the result. We won’t be expected to win the opener this time around, but even a draw against Germany would be taken as a victory. I expect Australia to have a few surprises in store for all the naysayers in the world.

Some comments from a few mates…

“We should take down Serbia, the key game is Ghana. Sure they have Essien and an amazing track record (haven’t lost a game in 18) but have they got the Aussie spirit. Germans will kill us as [simile deleted for political correctness].”

“Our group is tough, but not impossible by any means. We can take down Ghana … if we’re on song. The efficient schweinhunds will be very hard….but not out of the question. With names like Hitzlesperger and Schweinsteiger they really deserve to do well. Who adapts best to South African conditions will play a part.”

“I think we’ve got a reasonable group. We’ve beaten Ghana a few times (I saw the game in Sydney last year…though we weren’t pretty) and know them well.

“Germany is probably one of the more dangerous teams out of the seeds to draw. Would’ve preferred England any day. We’ve gone through Asian qualifying without conceding much, but this was mainly due to Schwarzer’s heroics and a lack of clinical finishing by the opposition – there were some games we should have lost by 2 or 3 nil. The Germans won’t make the same mistakes in front of goal.

“Serbia will be interesting. In the last World Cup they went through qualifying without conceding a goal, but then absolutely imploded once they got there. Remember that one game where 1 of their players got sent off and then the whole team gave up? They lost 6-0 to Argentina and didn’t get any points from the group stage. So I think our mental toughness could get the better of them.”

Of course, if Australia progresses to the second round, we will most likely face England. The prospect is absolutely delicious.

Every single South-east Asian on my Facebook and MSN seems to be lamenting the demise of Man U…

For melodramatic effect, this status message has to be the best one of them all: “It is defeat that turns bone to flint; it is defeat that turns gristle to muscle; it is defeat that makes men invincible. Next season we set sail once more.”

This uni is a ghost town after 6pm in the summer. Nonetheless, a group of us LLMs found a place to eat dinner and watch NBC’s rerun of the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony. Spectacular stuff – China put on an incredible show. It was interesting and a pretty cool for me that we had people from several different countries and continents watching, although the patriotism during the parade of nations was muted at best. The US NBC commentors were constantly amusing – eg, “You may have heard of Malawi via Madonna!” (as if the only way for US audiences to be informed about African nation is to follow the offbeat exploits of their celebrities). Our dear leader, PM Rudd got some airtime as well, with the NBC guys dropping the factoid that Rudd is fluent in Mandarin. I also thought it interesting that the Australian team received a rousing reception.

4-0 tonight… immense relief. Churchill’s turned out a sizeable crowd, which was good to see. Looks like the Socceroos they finally pulled their finger out! We have a likely berth playing against Japan in Vietnam. They’ll be out for revenge.

Just got back from the live screen at Circular Quay. What an atmosphere. It was an incredible game. I’ve lost my voice. Australia started off well, but an early questionable goal by the Japanese set the scoreline against us. Then as the missed chances started to pile up and the seconds ticked away, there was an increasing atmosphere of nervousness and depression all the way up to the 84th minute when Cahill sent the ball into the back of the Japanese net and the Aussie crowd into the atmosphere. A second and third goal sealed the match and everyone was rapturous. 3-1. Absolutely bloody fantastic.

The World Cup is just around the corner and that means Fantasy League is also starting up again. 5 pounds to enter. Our friends & enemies league, the not-named-by-me “Kransky of the Overflow” league is forming – PIN 1129 if you want to join.

I was 11 points up with the pink and black left on the table. I fouled on the pink, setting Justin up for a pot. He made the shot and was 1 point ahead. After knocking the black around the table for a few tense shots, the bastard potted it and hence I was forced to proclaim the above message. Then I partnered up with him against Dave and Ee Laine and lost three games of pool straight. Not a good run!!

There is one good point in having to burn some midnight oil to write a 4000 word essay on restitution… and that is getting to see, live, Thorpey take out the 400m gold (and Hackett the silver), and the Aussie girls win the 4x100m relay in world record style! Absolutely thrilling finishes to both races!

The 2004 Athens Olympics starts today. (Actually, tomorrow. The opening ceremony is today.) In other news, Sydney-siders long for the days of 2000… The annoying thing about the Olympics being back around the other side of the world is that we won’t get the opportunity to see some key events live.

Been playing snooker on a semi-regular basis over the last two or three months. There’ve been times when Dave and I (and maybe one or two friends) will just take off on impulse down to Coogee at midnight for a few games. Dave’s more experienced than me and he schooled me badly for the first 15 games or so, although in our last four games I’ve got a 2-2 record, so I must be improving a little bit. Our pool game, consequently, has improved markedly, simply because a snooker table is so much larger than a pool table. Psychologically, the short pool shots are easier to make. The bad thing about Coogee is that it’s a fair distance away, so we’ve had to settle for a few games of pool down at Churchill’s when we couldn’t be bothered travelling. But the crappy thing about Churchill’s (as with all pubs) is the smoke smell that impregnates your clothes. We’ve had to can snooker for a while though, Dave has an astounding eight exams to do this semester.

England goes down to Australia 3-1 in soccer. “And so England’s first ever defeat by their great sporting rivals at our national sport was completed.” Victory is sweet. In other news, England refuses to play Australia in any sport ever again.

Some interesting information on muscle growth. Typically muscle bulk is built on by the muscle fibres expanding (hypertrophy), but in some occassions, new ones can be grown (hyperplasia). Also, eccentric contractions seem to build muscle the best.

Remember the fantasy league I went into for the World Cup? I got convinced to join the one for the English Premier League, despite me not knowing anything about it. Major timesuck. Here’s our league. My manager’s name is named after the Great American Book Cooker.

In other news, after England’s defeat, some pissed off Pommie commentators had their post-match chat broadcast out when someone forgot to switch off the microphone. Reference to “fucking Krauts” made. Commentators mortified.

This World Cup is absolutely incredible, never seen anything like it. Korea has just taken out Italy, 3 minutes before penalty shootouts, the match just after they sent the Portuguese home. Totally insane stuff…

Few people seem to know what the semi-circle attached to the goal area on the soccer pitch is. The semi-circle is called a penalty arc. Players must stand outside of the arc when a penalty kick is taken. That is, it serves the rather mundane function of ensuring players are at least 10 yards away from the kicker when a penalty kick is taken.

Need a guaranteed positive return short term investment? Why don’t you bet on the World Cup? BetBrain’s sure bets compiles odds from bookies around the world. Some odds are so different, that if you bet on all outcomes (win/lose/draw), you will still make some cash. The main factor that makes this work is that odds in each country are highly affected by personal factors like patriotism. I think Dave could do with this.

Dave, my roommate, has lost like his fifth world cup bet tonight. That’s out of six wagers… He keeps picking the wrong team!! Meanwhile I think I got 5 points off Rivaldo in the fantasy league, plus a few more as a result of Italy denying Ecuador the chance to score. Stephen picked Vieri (two goals, six points) though, so I think he’ll shoot to the top of the table tonight once the web site refreshes. The Brazil/Turkey match was interesting, especially with the two red cards in the last half (and a melodramatic acting performance by Rivaldo, clutching his face in agony after the ball struck him in the … leg).

Australia finally wins one-dayer vs SA. I wasn’t sure that 241 was a large enough total (especially since Gilchrist didn’t bat, which the commentators kept incessently lamenting about throughout the entire match). However, a couple key wickets falling quickly earned the Aussies victory.

67.1 Sarandeep Singh to Vaughan, no run, on his pads, goes for the
sweep, misses it, struck on the thighs and bounced down at his
feet, Vaughan instinctively stucks his hand out and picks the ball
to give it to the fielder.. heh – thats not according to rules
man! mild appeal and Jayaprakash hands over his second handled the
ball decision for the year!

The scene: Australia v Zimbabwe Cricket Match
McGrath was bowling to Eddo Brandes, the portly Zimbabwean. First he was nicked over slip for 4 and next was slashed through cover for 4. McGrath glared at him and said “Why are you so fat?” to which the quick and very Zimbabwean style reply came, “Because every time I fuck your wife she gives me a biscuit”. Apparently all the Aussies were rolling around with laughter.

For his one-man bowling band effort in the recent Test series against Australia, Harbhajan is reaping the rewards. He’s been given money, a small plot of land, and the post of deputy superintendent of police by the Indian state of Punjab. Only on the subcontinent. They are truly fanatics!

John Hopoate, disgraced Wests-Tigers footy player, was suspended for a year for sticking his fingers up the assholes of other players while on the field. I reckon everyone’s seen it, but have another look anyhow (2MB). Man, he is deranged.

Great night, last night. We were originally going to catch the ceremony on the live screens at Circular Quay, but we left it too late and by early evening we already heard that it was all packed out, so after standing around for a little bit wondering where to go, we decided we should head for The Domain. As full as that was, we shoved our way into the centre anyhow and saw the ceremony there. The fireworks started going off around 10.30, snaking its way down from Homebush to the harbour. You can’t see the Harbour Bridge from the domain, and for a while all we could see was the sky lighting up with flashes from the fireworks, with the fireworks themselves hidden just over the treeline. A few seconds later, they sent the F-111 overhead which pretty much was like a loud fiery comet. Awesome sight… then the fireworks started in a position we could see. They were over and the Domain live concert kicked off with some Latin band and the whole area turned into one big mosh pit.

On heading home, George St had turned into a river of people heading for Central. The Quay and Town Hall stations were apparently chockas. When we reached Central, it wasn’t much better – one hour minimum wait to get on a train, which would already be full from its journey around the city circle. Eventually, we got into the station and onto a train. And that brings the Olympics to an end. The last 2-3 weeks in Sydney have been absolutely awesome. Rarely will you ever be able to scream out on the streets, “Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!” at random and have a crowd of people yell after you, “Oi! Oi! Oi!” I’ll have photos of stuff up this week.

I got lucky. I got a free Class A ticket to see yesterday’s (Day 13) afternoon/evening session of Athletics. The 200m semis/finals and long jump finals were incredible. There are pros and cons to watching an event live, but one of the biggest pros is definitely the atmosphere. I could’ve jacked the hi-fi volume to max at home and it still wouldn’t have matched the volume generated in Stadium Oz when Jai Taurima ran up for long jump. I also got to meet the team doctor of the Wallabies, Michael Jamieson, so that was pretty cool (turns out his dad, Ted, is a friend of my uncle and his wife sort of knows my dad – coincidences, eh?).

Someone should compile all 16 showings of Fatso’s Favourites offa The Dream.

Speaking of Fatso, they are flogging off Olympic memorabilia here and here. Fatso was going for over $3 million, last time I checked. By auctioning him off on eBay, they were asking for trouble. I wonder how they are going to sell him off now?

Ok I’ve been bludging. Last Thursday I got back from a 48km hike which took us from the Jenolan Caves back to Katoomba via the Six Foot Track. Thoroughly buggered, the majority of the days have since been spent in front of the TV watching Olympics coverage.

Did you catch EricTheEel’s swim? Been watching The Dream and Roy & HG’s continued trashing of Yanks? Seen Silly 2000? This Dutch left a message in the guestbook about Pieter Van Den Hoogenband (come on… say that name out aloud, I know you want to).

Ever wonder what the colours on the Olympic ID cards were? Here’s a list, courtesy of Kev:

Wooooooooohoooo! That 4x100m Freestyle Final was one of the most thrilling swims I’ve ever seen… Aussie gold, two WRs in one event (the relay, and Klim’s individual swim) and we beat the yanks!!! And I tell you, in just about every final swam tonight, a world record has been broken. That pool is one fast pool…

I must say that the opening ceremony was quite impressive. Despite the governor general stuttering “Sss-sss-Sydney”, hitting the microphone when he tried to clap, the Olympic pledges not being memorised and the cauldron’s mechanical failure, it was definitely memorable. I was watching in Strathfield, and it was funny seeing the fireworks go off on tele, to be shortly followed by the sound of them coming from outside and a slight rattling of the windows.

I haven’t, as yet, spoken to anyone who hasn’t had something positive to say about the Sydney games. Still, you have cynics. Strangely enough, I’ve only seen the cynicism on web sites. A crackhead here, a Melbournite there etc. Guess that’s to be expected. There are still people who think cynicism is the “in” thing… ah well. I mean, if you’re indifferent to the games, why do you need to mention it? It’s funny that, in their whining about not being able to go anywhere without seeing stuff about the Olympics, they’ve imprinted stuff about it on their very own web site.

Remember that “I Am Canadian” ad posted on Brain Damage a while back? Australia’s got their version of it now… it even runs for exactly the same duration as the canuckian one (Quicktime formatted). It rocks, naturally.

Yeah not much else going on around Sydney that’s not Olympic related and Hear Ye! is definitely going to reflect this fact over the next couple weeks (what else would you expect from someone living in the Olympic city?). Was there today. George St was pretty much blocked off for the torch relay and the streets were packed with Sydneysiders and tourists. The atmosphere is awesome – everything feels so alive in the CBD. I’ve got some photos that I’ll be posting up later on. Opening ceremony is today, 7pm (GMT+11). Since I wasn’t one of the lucky 110,000 who got a ticket to the ceremony at Stadium Oz, I’ll be over at a friend’s place catching it on the TV. Don’t miss it, it should be absolutely spectacular. As those Fosters ads say, “I believe Australia is the best address in the world.”

Saturday sees the events kick off with the Triathlon. Australia should get a gold medal or two out of that :). I remember during the last Olympics that whenever news broke that Australia won another gold, everyone seemed to be buoyed by the fact, and it showed – the general mood of people seemed more upbeat. I don’t know if it’s like this in other countries, but sport is a big part of Aussie culture. I guess you could say because we don’t memorise our constitution, or learn who our Prime Ministers were, or even know the history of our country very well, that sport is the way we display our patriotism. And I reckon that it’s a much more vibrant way to show it, than being able to recite from memory the names of 50 states in reverse alphabetical order. Go the green and gold!

Two things. Firstly, as featured in Column 8 in the SMH a couple days ago, someone repainted the blue lining marking out the olympic marathon route so that it lead into Doncaster Pub (Anzac parade, near UNSW). I bet you it was college students :).

Secondly, torch came through good ol’ Camden today, and I managed to nab some photos:

 One – Old guy running with torch on Argyle Street, Camden’s main street Two – About to get run over by a cop on a Harley Three – Check out the people on the shop rooves… and the advertising for Holden :)

The “dream team” of Aussie cricket over the past century has been announced. Ok so some think some cricketers don’t deserve to be in the list, but nonetheless, it’s an awesome team:

Of the 12 players named by the chairman of the Australian Cricket Board, Denis Rogers, nine are alive. Seven were in Sydney yesterday – Arthur Morris, Neil Harvey, Greg Chappell, Healy, Shane Warne, Dennis Lillee and Allan Border – although the captain, Donald Bradman, and his vice-captain, Keith Miller, were unable to attend.

Jelena Dokic has attitude problems. Of course, parental influence may a contributing factor (a very big head, the other). This article is backed up by this one. Doesn’t put her in a good light, and it stands out because normally Aussie sportspeople have good sportsmanship.

The SMH reports that Richie Benaud, talking about the 1-day cricket reinstatement of Shaoib Akhtar, “summed it up best” with this statement: “It’s a shemozzle. Not just an ordinary shemozzle, but a straight-out, full-blown shemozzle.” Right.

Australia beat South Africa in an extra time nailbiter 27-21. If it tied through extra time, it sorta would been like the World Cup cricket all over again :). But the surprising news is, of course, France stepping neatly over New Zealand 42-31. My finals pick? Australia to win for sure :). Now don’t make me eat my words fellas.

Found out that last week’s accounting tute was actually on. You see, last week I got to uni and found out that the tute was cancelled. However, some idiot had stuck the cancelled note on the wrong door. This was bad. The only thing I have on Tuesdays is a 2 hour accounting tute and it takes me 2 hours to get to uni, one way. Well anyway I had my accounting tute today then went down to the Roundhouse and saw the Melbourne Cup there. Rogan Josh won (5-1), followed by Central Park (50-1).

My quadraceps are hurting. Damn I’m unfit… Paintball on Friday was absolutely awesome. Got hit in the head twice, numerous body hits, but didn’t get bruised at all :). No one could get close enough heh. Had this game in a field called “The Village”. One team defends a village (with a medic, who can only be killed with two head shots) and flag, another team has to get the flag, but can’t enter the village. 50 players on the field, 25 a side. Looked like Braveheart (or a Zergling rush if you’d prefer). Anyway I was on the defending side on the front line… uploaded a fair few bullets into the oncoming hoard before getting smacked in the head, but in a mere 19.5 seconds the game was over. The ref blew his whistle, everyone stopped, only to hear some guy jumping up and down yelling “Fuck it!”. I thought the game was stopped because of injury, but it turned out that some guy managed to get to the flag in record time. He went spread-eagle in celebration, only to get smacked right in the nipple by a paintball. It was bleeding afterwards. Not a pleasant sight.

Golfed yesterday. Only 9 holes. First time since the beginning of the year. Scored a 51, pretty shoddy.

“Luckily she didn’t have a lot on,” said a relieved Woods, “because if someone come out of the stands like that and has a lot of clothing on, you never know what they have in there or what they’re hiding behind their back.” Yuh. I’m suuure you were thinking that at the time.

You heard so much fanfare about it before it began. Now that it has started, what does the board look like? Check it out and vote for a move. The World is down one rook. Kasparov looks to be in control of the game.

Well hasn’t it been an interesting tournament (esp from the Aussie point of view)… Dokic, after beating Hingis (whom I suspect many have lost respect for) and Pierce, got downed by another unseeded player. Phillippousis forfeiting the match from injury after leading one set to Sampras. And Rafter is playing Agassi right now. www.wimbledon.org

(Not interested? The last bit of this post might.) Street parade for the Aussie team in Sydney next Monday :). I’ve got a friend skipping work to go there, but no way am I making the two hour journey to the city to go there… not when my last exam (computing) is on Tuesday.

It was a bit of an anticlimax the final of the world cup however I sat up and watched it and the best part of the game was the way the Aussies – slaughtered – the bowling attack. Here we have one of the fastest in the world and they were aboslutely caned – there is no other description. I have not seen us take so harshly to an attack since I don’t know when. Here hoping we keep it up.

As for Steve Waugh – what can you say – the dude is an absolute legend. He makes runs and comes through when we need him. If anything such adversity just makes him more determined. It will be interesting to see how the team performs from here on. Once again all the Steve Waugh knockers have gone back into the woodword – just like they did when he pretty well single handedly won the 95 series in the West Indies for us in the batting department. Can’t handle short pitched bowling huh? What was that score he made – 200. Certainly sounds like it eh?

As for South Africa – one word – choked!!! Big time. I remember that they gave us that label the last time we were in South Africa – Aussie chokers!!! I do not think that they will even mention a hint of it again when playing Australia. In fact they have probably ripped that word out of their language altogether now. It certainly will make sledging for the Aussies much easier. They just need to make gagging noises when the batsmen come in and that should do it. I had the pleasure of relieving some South Africans of some of their devalued currency for that outcome. How sweet it is. Sorry to have raved on but:

ossie ossie ossie – oi oi oi!!!!!!

ps – I think your web page is great.Robert

I say I’d have to agree wholeheartedly with this. Except that I don’t think so much that SA *really* choked as in “Greg Norman 6 strokes ahead on the last day but lost” choke. They just cracked first under the pressure :). More credit to the Aussies (I think the exact quote from steve Waugh was, “we were shitting ourselves out there”). But yes, the finals were a stunning display of batting. Hate to be the Pakis returning home tho: Pakistan’s World Cup Squad returns to rotten eggs and angry fans. Crazy, fanatical bunch those fellas.

On the other side of the scale, some Yank who will remain anonymous (although it could as well be most of you :) once again displays the ethnocentrism inherent in “American culture” :). In response to the World Cup post last Monday:

Ok…I assume we’re talking about soccer here, but correct me if it’s something else. What the hell is a Wicket? And an Over? (won by 8 wickets & 20 overs?)

Last Monday’s cricket match was totally eclipsed by the one today. I wrote Australia off, as I did the last match they played.

So, there I was, at midnight, sitting in my room studying. I’ll just check on the score, I thought. Flicked from CD to Radio. “And South Africa are cruising at none for 43.” Swore a bit. Flicked from Radio to CD. An hour later, about to call it a night. I’ll just check the score again. Flick. “AND WARNE’S GOT HIS THIRD WICKET! South Africa are down 3 for 53.” Sat there a bit. Thought I’d study for a bit longer… with the radio on. I ended up rivetted in front of the radio and lost two hours that I could have spent sleeping (it finished 4.15am – same morning as the exam). All this with accounting book still in hand, still at the same page it had been opened at. Absolutely incredible game tho… right down to, again, the third last ball. Klusener is a freakish player. Even though the game ended in tie, Australia moves on to meet Pakistan in the finals on virtue of net run rate.

Now, who says cricket is boring? I’m free to perform bastinado on you.

Cricket.org’s commentary:

49.4 Fleming to Klusener, no run, run out gone, Australia have done it

South Africa 213/10, Partnership of 15AA Donald run out (Fleming) 0 (0b 0x4 0x6)I’m going to have a heart failure

ball was pulled down the wicket, Klusener called him thru, Donald didn’t move and then dropped his bat, both batsmen at the bowler’s end, mid off passes it to Fleming who passes to Gilchrist, Donald running down the pitch without his bat, well shortjust a tad of an exciting match, it’s tied, Australia go thru because they finish higher in the super 6 table first tie in World Cup history, and surely the most exciting, the last few overs provided drama after drama after dramasensational, amazing, astounding, whatever, make your own superlatives uppresentations comign up Cronje looks lost for words, devestated: “up to the fall of the 1st wicket, we were looking good”, poor guy he can barely speak, MC wraps it up quicklySteve Waugh says “it’s the most exciting match he’s ever played in”, looks a little underwhelmed, sensibly knows the final is still to comeMan of the match is Shane Warne, mentions how “fired up” and “pumped” he was after the wickets… he thinks this tops the Mohali semi final, point is made of Mark Waugh getting a duck in both of the matchesand so we move to Lord’s for Sunday’s final. WC87 v WC92 winners to determine who becomes the second team to win the World Cup twice. It’s Australia 4th WC final (a record) and their 3rd in the past 4 World Cupsso it all begins at 0945 GMT Sunday June 20. The Ripe Bananas v the Unripe Bananas (Aus v Pak) from Lords. Until then, I’ll be laying down and catching my breath.

Hey, it’s do or die time again. Australia vs South Africa (again). Semi finals match. This one ought to go off. Too bad I won’t be able to watch it :(. Winner plays Pakistan in the finals. www.cricket.org

Do or die time for Australia (vs South Africa). Live Scorecard. Now this is a sweet sight:

32.3 Warne to Cullinan, OUT: Cullinan’s brain taking one of its famous leaves of absence, trying to slog it on one knee over the mid wicket, ball spins into the off stump32.5 Warne to Cronje, OUT: Hansie obviously thought that last stroke of Cullinan’s was a mighty fine idea, because he tries it himself, ball hits the thigh of the leg on the ground, big appeal, ball was spinning down the line, small chance of it missing the off stump

Someone broke the world record for fastest soccer goal scored. It took Ricardo Olivera 2.5 seconds to do the feat. “When the referee blew his whistle for the kick-off, Olivera, rather than passing the ball to a teammate, blasted it directly at goal after noticing the goalkeeper was far off his line.” It went in. The previous record was 3.69 seconds. The former record holder was quoted saying, “Good luck to [Ricardo], it doesn’t bother me, nobody even cared when I did it. Hopefully, he makes a million dollars out of it.”

2-0 after half time and I’m, like, WTF?!? I’m talking about the France-Brazil World Cup Final of course. It reminds me of Croatia-Germany. The underdog scores two goals in the same way, except that they are mirrored (curled in from two directions in the Croatia match and headed in from corners taken from either sides of the field for the France match). Then a stray third goal just to top it off. Damn. Except that last time, I was going for Croatia.

Dad put $10 on the Romania/Columbia match that happened today (really early today), for Columbia to win. He lost. Romania won 1-0. I thought Romania would’ve won, but I didn’t think of betting anything…

Nothing really spectacular so far – quite a few draws. The match I saw last night was at 11pm, and ended up 0-0 (Bulgaria-Paraguay). That sucks. All the good matches are after midnight (1am and 4am timeslots).

Thrilling. Never been entertained more by anything else in the Winter Olympics. One of the best events I’ve seen. Especially the final group. The organisers must’ve rigged the order for maximum tension :) Ilia Kulik led off with a great skate to the tune of Rhapsody In Blue. The next few were good, and then Phillipe Candeloro (spelling?) did what I think was the most creative and exciting routines that night (a musketeer act). And finally came Elvis Stojko skating to The Ghost and The Darkness’ Soundtrack. The King :). Unfortunately his jumps were shaky, and he missed the Quad jump :(. He came away with a Silver, Kulik with Gold, and Candeloro with Bronze which he thoroughly deserved. However, the astounding thing was that Stojko had groin injuries, and he skated with them, aggravating them. The injuries were so bad that he had to be lifted out of the stadium, and when he received his medal, he could not skate in like the others, but instead had to limp in … in sneakers (looking not at all like a champion skater). The amazing thing was, that during the routine, Stojko did nothing to indicate he was under pain. Nothing, not even a grimace. Only when he finished, he grimaced and limped off. In addition to this, he had contracted the flu earlier. What a legend.

This is hearye.org. It is maintained by Stuart Loh (contact me). This blog has been continuously maintained since 1998, so you might like to read about it. I also create other stuff from time to time. Post no bills.Copyright notice. All content on this blog created by me is licensed under these CC license terms, unless otherwise
specified or agreed.